1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printers of the type which print characters in response to coded digital data, and more particularly to arrangements within such printers for varying the pitch of the printer characters.
2. History of the Prior Art
Printers of the type which print graphic characters in response to coded character data in binary form have found widespread use in many data processing operations and systems. Such printers respond to the incoming coded character data to physically print the graphic characters represented by the character data as defined by the code thereof. The printing operation can assume various different forms including the well-known impact printer in which each segment of the coded character data results in the selection of a piece of type or other raised indicia. The selected piece of type strikes a piece of paper or other printable medium to effect printing of the desired graphic character.
Prior art printers of the type described suffer from a number of disadvantages which often limit their usefulness. One limitation of such printers relates to the difficulty in varying the pitch as defined by the width of the characters being printed. Depending upon system design, character width is typically difficult or impossible to vary. In particular it is impossible to vary the width of characters within a given print line so as to be able to intermix pitches within the given line. Further disadvantages reside both in the nature of the printer itself and in the particular techniques which must be employed to vary the pitch. For example, it would be desirable to be able to separately identify the desired pitch for each character in a print line and thereafter vary the width of each character as it is printed independently of the width of other characters in the line.